Woody Allen Sues Amazon For Refusing to Release His Movie

Woody Allen released at least one movie a year every year since 1971 — until last year when there wasn’t a single Allen production in theaters for the first time since the middle of the last century. That wasn’t Allen’s fault; he finished a movie called A Rainy Day in New York, but Amazon, the company that produced it, never released it, as public scrutiny of Allen and the prior allegations that he molested his adopted daughter decades ago intensified.

Now Allen is suing Amazon for some $68 million, alleging the company breached their contract by refusing to release Rainy Day in New York. More, via the Wall Street Journal:

Allen alleged that Amazon backed out of his agreement last June after an old accusation that he had molested his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in 1992 resurfaced, the report says. "Amazon has tried to excuse its action by referencing a 25-year-old baseless allegation against Mr. Allen, but that allegation was already well-known to Amazon (and the public) before Amazon entered into four separate deals with Mr. Allen-and in any event, it does not provide a basis for Amazon to terminate the contract," the suit said.

You can believe everything said about Allen by his children (his son, Ronan Farrow, has supported Dylan throughout her attempts to have her accusations against her father taken seriously). You can think Allen shouldn’t be able to continue working in Hollywood. But he almost certainly has a legal case here. As that excerpt notes, there have been no new allegations against Allen since he began his deal with Amazon a few years ago. The studio previously released his films Cafe Society and Wonder Wheel, along with his first TV series, Crisis in Six Scenes. And they financed Rainy Day in New York. Which now sits on a shelf somewhere collecting dust.

Even if Allen and Amazon eventually settle this lawsuit, what becomes of that movie? Does it ever see the light of day? And will the notoriously prolific Allen find a new home? He can’t be happy not making movies.